Albert d



-\N0 Modelj;

A. D. GILPIN.

EGG CRATE.

No. 559,776. Pa tented May 5, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT rricn.

ALBERT D. GILPIN, OF LINCOLN, KANSAS, AS-SIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO LYMAN .T. DUNTON AND THOMAS E. GLINE, OF SAME PLACE.

EGG-CRATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters IPatent No. 559,776, dated May 5, 1896. Application filed September 1,1895. Serial No. 561,436. (No model.)

T0 (055 whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALBERT D. GILPIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lincoln, in the county of Lincoln and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Egg-Crates; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying d rawings,in which- Figure I represents an egg-crate with the front side removed and showing at the top and bottom cushions according to my invention. Fig. II shows such cushions nested together for storage or transportation, and Fig. III is a perspective view of one of my cushions for egg-crates.

This invention relates to that class of packing and carrying cases which are usually provided with stalls to be occupied by individual pieces of the article to be carried-such as eggs, choice fruit, glass bottles, &c.and its object is to provide a simple cushion for sup porting and protecting such individual pieces at the bottom and top in such form that the said cushions may be closely packed for economical storage or transportation.

For the purpose of this specification I will term my invention an improvement in eggcrates and it consists in pieces of paste board, thickpaper, or similar sheet material, shaped as hereinafter described and claimed.

5 represents a sheet of pasteboard, preferably made without much stiffening or sizing and folded or pressed to form platforms 9 and flutes or grooves 6 of uniform depth and so slanted at the sides of the grooves that the sheets may be nested together and piled up for transportation, as shown in Fig. II. The box or packing-case 7 may be of any suitable form or material, as also may be the partitions 8, as this invention pertains only to the top andbottom cushions, formed, as described, of the grooved pasteboards 5. I so proportion the spaces between grooves 6 as to correspond with the stalls or compartments, so that the individual articles occupying each compartment will rest upon but one of the raised platforms 9, and the partitions which support the floors of each story, standing over the grooves, leave each upper story supported upon the eggs below, so that this raised platform practically offers a yielding support to each column of eggs above it, and when the packing-case is inverted the top cushion becomes a similar bottom support. I may use for this purpose sheet material of cloth or leather, as well as pasteboard and soft paper, the characteristic in this respect being that of a yielding cushion. Fluted wood or metal would be too hard and not an equivalent. In service these cushions occupy the position shown at 5 6, Fig. I. After service a large number of the cushions maybe nested together and packed in a very small space to be returned, and as there are already many packing-crates which with their partitions may be folded together for transportation these cushions will serve well as linings for the top and bottom of such. Their first cost is very little, an d being almost indestructible they accomplish the purpose in view with economy. Such cushions may be used to support other kinds of products or wares than eggs, fruit, and glassware.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I believe to be new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

An egg-crate comprising a series of partitions and floors forming individual stalls, and a bottom and a top cushion of soft flexible sheet material corrugated to form grooves registering with the said partitions, and raised platforms registering respectively with the individual stalls, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ALBERT I). GILPIN. \Vitnesses H. H. GILPIN, E. P. GRUBB. 

